10 Practices to Avoid in Your Next Training Program [Part One]

In the cannabis industry, it’s extremely important for all of your employees to be well-trained in order to not only run your business well, but also avoid any potential legal issues. However, designing a great instructor-led virtual or classroom learning experience can be hard with limited time and resources. While none of the following practices will necessarily render your program completely ineffective, avoiding them will help ensure that you and your employees have a successful experience in the classroom and beyond.

 

1. Cutting out essentials
We recently outlined the essential components of a training program (click here to view the 10 components). For example, learning objectives, assessments, participant guides, and activities should be included as a regular part of your curriculum. Without these essentials, knowledge acquisition and retention may suffer.

 

2. Ignoring adult learning principles
Well-established adult learning theory states that your learners need to be motivated and involved so that they can connect with the curriculum, relate to the learners’ current experiences, provide opportunities for interaction, and give positive feedback. Omitting adult learning principles leads to learner inattention and frustration.

 

3. Remaining out of date
With the rapid pace of the cannabis industry, legal regulations and best-practices can change soon after learners complete the training program. Poor performance on the job can be traced back to outdated knowledge in the classroom. So, always stay up-to-date and keep making changes to the curriculum as needed. If possible, provide learners in earlier classes with new information so you can help improve their performance long after they receive a certificate of completion.

 

4. Dropping off the radar
If your role is primarily as a trainer, your responsibility continues beyond the classroom as you provide additional reinforcement with new learning resources. Don’t consider the end of each class of learners as the end of your involvement with them. If you do, they’ll likely forget about you, as well as a large part of what they’ve learned.

 

5. Using the Web indiscriminately
You can search the Web for inspiration and ideas when necessary, but you should use Web content sparingly, only with attribution and after making sure it’s correct. There is a lot of inaccurate information online about cannabis–either hyping it up as a miracle cure, or trying to create fear around it–so double-check what you’ll be providing. Plus, when you “borrow” content without giving proper credit or having regard for its accuracy, your learners will know that you are not an expert and that you condone plagiarism.

 

These aren’t the only practices you should attempt to avoid in your training programs. Come back on Monday for the second half of this series.